The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3): Literally Translated, with NotesStrabo
History
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3): Literally Translated, with Notes
Strabo
Geography -- Early works to 1800
At present I must add some remarks concerning the Caucones in Triphylia.
For some writers say, that the whole of the present Elis, from Messenia
to Dyme, was called Cauconia. Antimachus calls them all Epeii and
Caucones. But some writers say that they did not possess the whole
country, but inhabited it when they were divided into two bodies, one of
which settled in Triphylia towards Messenia, the other in the Buprasian
district towards Dyme, and in the Hollow Elis. And there, and not in any
other place, Aristotle considered them to be situated. The last opinion
agrees better with the language of Homer, and the preceding question is
resolved. For Nestor is supposed to have lived at the Triphyliac Pylus,
the parts of which towards the south and the east (and these coincide
towards Messenia and Laconia) was the country subject to Nestor, but the
Caucones now occupy it, so that those who are going from Pylus to
Lacedæmon must necessarily take the road through the Caucones. The
temple of the Samian Neptune, and the naval station near it, where
Telemachus landed, incline to the west and to the north. If then the
Caucones lived there only, the account of the poet must be erroneous.
[For, according to Sotades, Minerva enjoins Nestor to send his son with
Telemachus in a chariot to Lacedæmon towards the east, while she herself
returns back to the west, to pass the night in the vessel;
“but at sunrise she sets out to the magnanimous Caucones,”
to obtain payment of the debt, in a forward direction. How then are we
to reconcile these opinions? for Nestor might say, “The Caucones are my
subjects, and lie directly in the road of persons who are going to
Lacedæmon; why then do you not accompany Telemachus and his friends on
his journey, but take a road in an opposite direction?” Besides, it was
natural for one, who was going to recover payment of a debt, and that a
considerable sum, as she says, from a people under the command of
Nestor, to request some assistance from him in case they should be so
unjust, as usually happens, as to refuse to discharge it. But she did
not do this.
If therefore the Caucones are to be found in one situation only, these
absurdities would follow. But if one division of this tribe occupied the
places in Elis near Dymē, Minerva might be said to direct her journey
thither, and even the return to the ship would not be absurd, nor the
separation from the company of Telemachus, when her road was in an
opposite direction.
The question respecting Pylus may perhaps be resolved in a similar
manner, when we come, as we proceed, to the description of the Messenian
Pylus.[64]]
18. There is also, it is said, a nation, the Paroreatæ, who occupy, in
the hilly district of Triphylia, the mountains, which extend from about
Lepreum and Macistum to the sea near the Samian grove sacred to Neptune.
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